Washington Caps defenseman Mike Green celebrated “green-day” 24 hours later than the rest of the country tonight with a 2-goal effort in Tampa Bay as the Caps scored three times in the 3rd period to win, 5-2.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the season in the first period, then broke into a funky post-goal celebration where he laid his stick on the ice and acted as if it were hot — or on fire — but the routine didn’t come off very well and he looked like a bad version of Terrell Owens. See the video here…

The dude’s the best player in the league — and he certainly shoots more than anyone — but that’s the kind of stuff that won’t endear him to the rest of the NHL. Given that it was The Great 8’s 50th goal, a longer-than-normal post-goal celebration might have been acceptable, but let’s hope it doesn’t become a trend for the remainder of the season.

As for the rest of the game, Washington used an early 3rd period goal from Green, his 2nd of the night, to go ahead to stay, then got tallies from Michael Nylander and Matt Bradley later on to put the game away.

The Caps are now 2-1 on their 5-game road swing and head to Carolina for a divisional match-up with the Hurricanes on Saturday night.

The win gives Washington a 45-22-6 record, good enough for 2nd place in the Eastern Conference behind Boston.